Obolos 18

AEOLIS. Aigai. Circa 151-143 BC. (32 mm, 16.47 g, 12 h). Laureate head of Apollo Smintheos to right, bow and quiver at shoulder. Rev. AIΓAIEΩN Zeus standing facing, head left, holding eagle in his outstretched right hand and lotus-tipped scepter in his left; in field to left, monogram; all within oak wreath. SNG Copenhagen 6 (same obverse die). SNG München 357. SNG von Aulock 1594-5. Striking weakness on back of head, otherwise, very fine.

From the Trausnitz Collection, ex Gorny & Mosch 142, 10 October 2005, 1497.

The "Stephanophoroi" or wreathed-bearing tetradrachms were struck at several Hellenistic mints throughout Greece and Asia Minor during the second century. The mints responsible for the largest output of stephanophoroi were Athens (i.e., the so-called "New Style" issues), Kyme and Myrina in Aeolis, and Herakleia, Lebedos and Smyrna in Ionia. Other mints also produced stephanophoroi, but on a much smaller scale. The present coin is from Aigai, a mint with one of the smallest outputs of stephanophoroi, having only four known obverse dies.